Lawyer Petitions INEC, Alleges Plot To Rig Rerun

Ahead of the April 15, 2023 supplementary elections for the Abak federal constituency of Akwa Ibom State, which were declared inconclusive, a human rights lawyer, Comrade Inibehe Effiong, has petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over alleged plot to rig the polls.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Clement Jimbo, had led with 2,962 votes margin against the incumbent lawmaker, Aniekan Umanah, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before INEC declared the polls inconclusive.

At a joint press conference in Uyo, the state capital, Effiong, in a petition to INEC national chairman, alleged that there is a plot by the PDP and the resident electoral commissioner (REC), Cyril Onoregbe, to stage-manage the supplementary election in favour of the PDP candidate.

He therefore called for the removal of the electoral officer (EO) of Etim Ekpo local government area, where most of the polls would hold.

In the same vein, the APC candidate, Jimbo, wondered why he was not declared winner of the contest in line with the relevant sections of the Electoral Act, having polled 2,962 votes, adding that the action was deliberately orchestrated to scuttle the will of the people of the constituency.

He said, “Abak Federal Constituency has a total of 386 polling units, 31 registration areas and three LGAs of Abak, Etim Ekpo and Ika. I scored the majority of the lawful votes with a margin of lead of 2,962. The commission did not declare and return me elected and did not offer any satisfactory reason, save for the fact that elections in some units were cancelled.

“A list published in the commission’s website indicates that INEC will hold supplementary elections in 25 polling units. We are minded to alert the public of the ongoing efforts by compromised elements within the Commission acting with some officials and leaders of the PDP to manipulate the exercise by concocting fraudulent figures in order to upstage my initial scores.”

While urging the people of the zone to resist the ploy, Jimbo charged the national leadership of INEC and security agencies to ensure justice was done by preventing the will of the people from being circumvented.

He said INEC, in order to counter his earlier score of 2,962 votes, has listed four other units where elections had been concluded, results upload and declared in Ika and Etim Ekpo LGAs, to conduct another round of the election, even when the earlier results had been endorsed by all the party agents and submitted to the electoral body.